From last week? A review? Did I miss it?
It made $39 million first weekend, cleaning Mike Myers clock. I haven't seen it, but I might. That's a fun cast they've lined up.
However:
The original series was a real gem, sustaining enough really good comedy -- especially in the area of line writing and "adult" humor -- to have merited paying audiences at movie theaters rather than weekly audiences for TV.
Hatched by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry on assignment to merge James Bond and Inspector Clouseau, with "The Man From UNCLE" as a spoof frame, "Get Smart"'s first seasons dealt in borscht-belt catch phrases like "Sorry about that, Chief," "Would you believe?" and "Missed it by that much."
But that was the front-end TV comedy schtick. Far more of the dialogue was pitched at a far more witty level, as when, in reviewing a list of CONTROL agents killed by their dogs (German Shepard, Doberman, St. Bernard) the chief told Max that one had been killed by his Dachsund.
Smart: His DACHSHUND?
Chief: (Deadpan) He was sleeping at the time.
We also had the chief saying something like this:
Chief: Max, you've hopelessly bumbled every assignment you were given in the past six months.
Max: I resent that, chief.
Chief: Do you deny it?
Max: No, but I resent it.
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"Get Smart" was originally supposed to star Tom Poston, but somebody decided to shift Don Adams and his nasal-voiced William Powell-impression into the role. It was a smart play, because Adams was actually rather attractive (he kinda had an Anthony LaPaglia thing going) and seemed like the kinda guy the sultry Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon) could get a crush on. Feldon was recruited from the "Top Brass" TV commercial for male hair cream, in which she seduced tired suburban dads fwhile lying on a tiger skin rug, fully clothed, but staring into the camera with a come-hither look.
They're saying that the new "Get Smart" movie is action-heavy, but so was the show. Max was a bumbler, and a bit slow-on-the-uptake, but he could FIGHT. And he wasn't dumb.
In fact, a few seasons in, they added a truly dumb character named Larrabee (Robert Karvelas) whose exquisite deadpan dense-man's squint drove the Chief crazier than Max's bumbling did. Larrabee once locked himself in a 24-hour time vault. Max noticed. The following exchange:
Chief: C'mon, Max. Let's go.
Max: But Larrabee's locked in the time vault...
Chief: Let's GO.
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Ed Platt's Chief was really the key to the whole thing. Even the Great Alan Arkin can't possibly capture Platt's long-suffering slow-burn. Platt had been in too many deadly-dull character parts (like the understanding cop in "Rebel Without A Cause") to have any comic presence when "Get Smart" began. But that only made it funnier when Smart drove him nuts (as demanding a confab under the dysfunctinal "cone of silence") and Platt GOT funnier in every passing season.
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Eventually Max and 99 married. Enemy KAOS spies turned the wedding into a massive spy fight (An onlooker notes to her husband: "Stay out of it. It's between her family and his family") and 99 invites the Chief over for a dinner that has been poisoned by KAOS neigbors Tom Bosley and Alice Ghostley.
Max and the Chief are poisoned (not fatally) and nauseous. Max crawls into the kitchen away from the chief:
Chief: Where ...are...you..going, Max?
Max: I'm going in there and taking 99's chocolate mousse and pouring it down the sink.
Chief: Max, if she tries to stop you...kill her.
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And so on. Let's take special note of Bernie Kopell's German-yet-somehow-Russian villain Siegfried, with his overthick accent (Terrence Stamp has elected to play the part straight, I hear.)
Siegfried and Smart meet for lunch. A boy selling papers approaches:
Boy: (To Smart) Paper, mister?
Smart: No thank you, son.
Siegfried: Oh come on, Schmart. Buy a paper from zee liddle boy.
Boy: (To Siegfried) How about you, Mr? Paper?
Siegfried: Buzz off, punk.
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The great titles ("Greer Window," "The Mess of Adrian Listenger"). The great coming attractions trailers ("Next week, LA Dodger Maury Wills in a cameo role! -- shot of Gorilla killing a screaming Wills -- uh, a very short cameo role.") The great special guest stars: Don Rickles, James Caan, Johnny Carson, Robert Culp.
A lot of great comedy, and unlike other sitcoms, "Get Smart" actually got hipper and funnier as it moved along (some "Mary Tyler Moore" show people wrote a lot of the final shows.)
Good luck, Steve Carrell. Missed it by that much.
